Last week I had a conference in Vegas, so I decided that instead of flying that I'd take my wife and we'd enjoy the Vette on a nice cross country trip.
Everything was going great until the return home I got caught up in the Texas ice storm. I was off the interstate heading from Amarillo to Dallas when I hit the worst of it. The road with its 2 to 3" of sometimes choppy ice was definitely tough on the suspension and the car (as well as the wife and I took a beating). But if we didn't press on I knew I'd still be in Texas today.
Well finally made it out of Texas and noticed that when I got the car back up to speed that it felt really loose. Just changing lanes felt not unlike driving on the slick ice at times. I was able to nurse it back home (Alabama).
Today was the first day I was able to take a look at the car to see if I could tell what may be the issue. I also have noticed a creaking sound in the rear of the car now when it bounces.
I jacked the rear end of the car up to take the rear tires off and inspect. Albeit its dark out and im working with a flashlight I didn't notice anything obviously wrong or out of place.
When I put the tires back on and lowered the car it seems as though the back end is sitting taller. and inch or 2 perhaps?
Not sure if all these things are related. Anyone got any ideas of what the driving issue may be?
Thanks for reading this...

 

First off, jacking the car up & letting the suspension drop to remove the wheels off.

When you re installed the wheel/tires & the car has the weight on the suspension/ground again...it is normal for the car to set a little higher until after driving the car for a few miles, then it will re settle to your set ride height.

No mention if you have all season tires, tire brand , or of the (born on) date codes on your tires.

My bet is on tire problem.

 

I suspected that the car setting higher may be normal and something I just haven't noticed in the past, but included it for thoroughness.

The tires are Michelin AS/ZPs
about 10k on them now. Even wear, in great shape visually.

But definitely feels odd when turning. I had thought maybe something had broken, worn on the sway bar, but didn't notice anything tonight with the flashlight.

When I push down on the rear end I am getting that creaking sounds that wasn't there before the trip.

thanks for your reply

 

The cold weather plus tires? Can you give us a little more detail so I can think of some other things?

 

It's very possible that an alignment cam slipped. The front control arms each have 2 eccentric bolts where they attach to the frame and the rear lower control arms each have an eccentric bolt at the front frame attachment. Apply enough force and these can slip throwing out the alignment. The car drives very poorly when this happens.

 

thanks for all the information.
I took another look underneath this morning during the daylight and noticed that on both rear upper control arm, one of the 2 bolts had worked their way loose about 1/2 inch. I tightened them down real good and the driving issue has gone away. i guess 300 miles of off-road like conditions backed them up. Perhaps some locktite can keep that from happening again (that and staying off the ice)?

Haven't figured out the source of this new noise, but apparently its not related to the other.

Thanks again for the help.

Jeremy

 

There have been a couple of cases reported here, where sway bars have rusted through, where they pass through the bushings.

 

Thanks Leadfoot. I will look into that.

Jeremy